The Beginning

I’m sure many people are wondering why I’m planning on going on yet another mission trip. Or more importantly, why am I asking for yet more money for another mission trip when the economy isn’t the best. Many might think it’s selfish to ask for people to open their wallets once again. Some might wonder why not use all this money to go and feed hundreds and save lives, and just stay home. And I’ll have to say those are very good and reasonable questions. You see, I’ve thought about all these things myself. But you have to understand how I got to this place in my life. A place where I stopped thinking with my head and started thinking with my heart.  This is how it came about.
 
Last summer in Uganda one of my prayers was to have clarity about my future after high school. Almost everyday I heard God telling me that the life He would lead me to live wasn’t a life that most people would understand. At the time I thought He was talking about missions after college. But once I returned to the states and reality hit, I just couldn’t see myself going to college in the fall. I looked at colleges all over the country, and I still wasn’t at peace about going.  All the while my heart longed to return to the countries I had fallen in love with the past two summers. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my mind around what God was planning on doing with my life. He wasn’t just breaking my heart for one country or one people group. He was breaking my heart for the nations, the world. When I started praying about God’s will for my life for this fall I could Him whisper  “missions”.  For weeks I tried to fight Him on this. The thought of throwing my financial future away scared me more than anything. Then one night I sat on my bed thinking about everything. Thinking about what God had taught me both in Nicaragua and Uganda, and in that moment I realized that for the past two summers God had been preparing me for this fall. That night I looked at the Adventures in Missions site and came across the Passport: Immersion trip. A trip I had looked at before and longed to be part of after college. It was then I heard God say, “This is what I’ve been preparing you for.” I sat there numb, was I really about to throw everything away? My future, my life? But this trip was everything I’ve ever wanted in a trip. I’d return to two continents that I’ve already fallen in love with and go to Asia, a place God had been breaking my heart for, for years. How could I pass this up?
 
Since that night a new vision for my future has begun to immerge. A future where missions isn’t part of my life, but is my life.  A life that at moments will include getting peed on, parasites, lice, dirty feet but also a life I’ve fallen in love with.